Hi. I’m about 40 and I live in Florida. I haven’t been a regular wine drinker until recently My parents drank wine growing up and I guess that made it not all that cool. I’ve mostly been a champagne at new years type drinker (in other words, infrequently). When I was younger I’d have an occasional glass of chianti with Italian food, or a beer with pizza. In fact I was probably more a beer drinker, or even sake (I went through a quasi-macrobiotic stage). I went through a phase in my early 30’s where I started drinking liquor (I liked ouzo, pastis, anything anise flavored), but I reached a point where I was drinking three or four ounces a day and feeling like crap the next day so I just quit.
Then I got sick in my mid 30’s. Fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, and finally, I became gluten and casein intolerant. So of course, I didn’t drink anything for years, too sick to even think about alcohol, and quite content to live without it. So I’ve found now my alcohol tolerance is a lot lower than it was. Especially certain red wines. I drink a half a glass of wine or cider with lunch or dinner, no more than about 5 ounces a day, and I seem to feel fine the next day.
I occasionally drink an American pilsner beer. There seems to be too little gluten in this style of beer to really bother me. I’ve also tried some beer made from sorghum and it’s acceptable. My favorite alcoholic beer is probably Corona. But I really don’t see myself as drinking beer as much as wine.
I like buying small quantities of wine, when I can, single servings or tetra-packs. I have some bottles of wine unopened stored in a closet, but here in Florida it is quite warm so I wonder about long term storage (It’s about 77F in the house). I don’t think the wines are very ageworthy (Two Buck Chuck type wines). I’m also interested in bag-in-box wine, as I’ve heard that it doesn’t spoil as fast as an open bottle and that would be useful since my S.O. is a non-drinker, and I drink so little anyways.
I’m particularly interested in red wine, esp. for the health benefits. But many I have tried haven’t tasted very good, esp. the pricier glasses I’ve tried in restaurants. I tried a French Pinot Noir recently I picked up at Wal-Mart in one of those plastic, ready to drink foil tops and I really liked it, I could see myself drinking more of that. But Pinot Noir is not so common at the price points or storage (?) I am looking for.
It’s hard to pair wine with food. I eat mostly Asian food I make myself, or I order Chinese takeout. I’ve branched out a little into eating rice with Italian style tomato sauces. Or we will get something from the local Hispanic deli (usually chicken and rice). I don’t eat a lot of traditional American or European type foods, and restaurants I often go to don’t have wine. I haven’t found as many red wines that go with Asian food without overwhelming the meal. I tend to think the Chardonnay I’ve tried works the best for Chinese food - I tried Moscato and sometimes it is just too sweet, and the red’s I’ve tried so far are just overpowering and too dry even with beef or pork (I haven’t tried Pinot Noir yet, though).